Today was the first day back to work for the Oregon Symphony and the beginning of the 2010-2011 season. \u00a0It was good to be back in the Arlene, and there were both some new faces as well as missing familiar ones. Introduced at this morning’s rehearsal were our new Principal timpanist Jonathan Greeney (whose wife gave birth to their daughter just days before – many congratulations to them!), and new section violist Silu Fei. \u00a0Our new English horn player, Kyle Mustain, will be joining us very soon. We also were informed that two members of the orchestra were retiring – violinist Virginia McCarthy, who would not be returning from last season’s sabbatical, and bassist William Ofstad, who will be retiring in November.<\/p>\n
The first day of rehearsal in a professional orchestra is a lot like the first day of school at a small school where everyone knows one another and has come up through the grades together. \u00a0It’s nice to reconnect with everyone, regardless of the history we might share – the new season is like a clean slate, and it’s pretty much nice to see everyone. \u00a0Then the rehearsal starts.<\/p>\n
With Carlos, there’s not much time for idle chit chat. \u00a0We got right to work, and there were a lot of pieces for Thursday’s Waterfront Concert that needed to be gotten into shape quickly. \u00a0It is a strange sensation, returning to work with a good professional orchestra after a summer off. \u00a0I liken it to putting back on a pair of well-worn and comfortable house slippers that haven’t been worn for a long time. \u00a0There are things that feel just right, and there are also new sensations that come from new players, new repertoire, and the attitude adjustment that comes from a couple months away from the workplace and being exposed to different players, works, and situations. \u00a0My first impression of today’s rehearsal? \u00a0The orchestra sounds good – even in the first rehearsal. \u00a0There was little of the shakedown mentality that used to pervade the first rehearsal of the season. \u00a0The orchestra was prepared and ready to go, and the playing was really good. \u00a0It bodes well for the coming season, one in which we must bring our ‘A’ game to New York for our Carnegie Hall debut concert in May 2011.<\/p>\n
It was fun to see what some of my colleagues have been up to over the summer. \u00a0Many go to perform at music festivals around the country. \u00a0Concertmaster Jun Iwasaki went on tour in Europe with the Cleveland Orchestra, which included a residency at the super-prestigious Lucerne and Salzburg Festivals. \u00a0My stand partner, principal violist Jo\u00ebl Belgique, was at the Steamboat Chamber Music Festival and the Grand Tetons Festival, among others. \u00a0Principal trombonist Aaron LaVere spent last season on sabbatical playing with the Seoul Philharmonic Orchestra, and just got back from recording Mahler’s 2nd Symphony with that group under music director Myung Whun Chung.<\/p>\n
So, it was great to be back, and if you’re looking for something to do between 9:30 – 12:00 p.m. Thursday morning, we’ll be at the Tom McCall Waterfront Park bowl (just south of the west side of the Hawthorne bridge) rehearsing for Thursday night’s concert.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Today was the first day back to work for the Oregon Symphony and the beginning of the 2010-2011 season. \u00a0It was good to be back in the Arlene, and there were both some new faces as well as missing familiar ones.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":303,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_feature_clip_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2},"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[2],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-5247","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-the-orchestra-world"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/pa8kC-1mD","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":2152,"url":"https:\/\/www.nobleviola.com\/wordpress\/2009\/03\/15\/surviving-the-first-rehearsal\/","url_meta":{"origin":5247,"position":0},"title":"“surviving the first rehearsal”","author":"Charles Noble","date":"March 15, 2009","format":false,"excerpt":"I spotted this YouTube clip featuring John Adams talking about the world premiere of his work Slonimsky's Earbox with the Hall\u00c3\u00a9 Orchestra (the Oregon Symphony played the US premiere), and it struck me that said that the hardest part about being a composer was surviving the first rehearsal of one's\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "appreciation"","block_context":{"text":"appreciation","link":"https:\/\/www.nobleviola.com\/wordpress\/category\/music\/appreciations\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":1689,"url":"https:\/\/www.nobleviola.com\/wordpress\/2009\/01\/07\/rehearsal-technique\/","url_meta":{"origin":5247,"position":1},"title":"rehearsal technique???","author":"Charles Noble","date":"January 7, 2009","format":false,"excerpt":"Given that string players are most likely to complain about what they perceive as bad rehearsal technique on the part of a conductor, how about seeing what happens when they try to do it themselves?\u00c2\u00a0 Not typical of a string quartet rehearsal, but things start to get unwieldy when you've\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "chamber music"","block_context":{"text":"chamber music","link":"https:\/\/www.nobleviola.com\/wordpress\/category\/music\/chamber-music\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":6873,"url":"https:\/\/www.nobleviola.com\/wordpress\/2011\/09\/06\/what-makes-a-good-concertmaster-2\/","url_meta":{"origin":5247,"position":2},"title":"what makes a good concertmaster","author":"Charles Noble","date":"September 6, 2011","format":false,"excerpt":"Kenneth Woods, a highly-respected conductor and instrumentalist, is also a high-respected blogger, and he has written a series of posts concerning what it takes to be an effective concertmaster. Since we here at the Oregon Symphony are embarking upon our own search for a lead violin, it's a timely subject.\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "the orchestra world"","block_context":{"text":"the orchestra world","link":"https:\/\/www.nobleviola.com\/wordpress\/category\/music\/the-orchestra-world\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.nobleviola.com\/wordpress\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/09\/KennethWoodsChrisStock.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":5321,"url":"https:\/\/www.nobleviola.com\/wordpress\/2010\/09\/17\/critical-mass\/","url_meta":{"origin":5247,"position":3},"title":"critical mass","author":"Charles Noble","date":"September 17, 2010","format":false,"excerpt":"There was a review of last night's concert by James McQuillen, which you can find here at the Oregonian's website.\u00a0 I was interested to find that there was a pretty quick followup comment by \"clarities\" - I'll quote the first paragraph here: If it's true that \"Carlos Kalmar intends for\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "appreciation"","block_context":{"text":"appreciation","link":"https:\/\/www.nobleviola.com\/wordpress\/category\/music\/appreciations\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":1215,"url":"https:\/\/www.nobleviola.com\/wordpress\/2008\/10\/03\/lang-lang-is-good\/","url_meta":{"origin":5247,"position":4},"title":"lang lang is… good!","author":"Charles Noble","date":"October 3, 2008","format":false,"excerpt":"Photo: \u00c2\u00a9 Felix Broede \/ Deutsche Grammophone Well, for the orchestra, the anticipation came to an end around 11:00 a.m. this morning.\u00c2\u00a0 The unassuming, young, Armani-clad Asian pianist strode onto the stage, was introduced to the orchestra to polite applause, and then proceeded to mesmerize much of the orchestra with\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "music"","block_context":{"text":"music","link":"https:\/\/www.nobleviola.com\/wordpress\/category\/music\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.nobleviola.com\/wordpress\/wp-content\/uploads\/2008\/10\/lang-lang3_felix-broede_sm.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":323,"url":"https:\/\/www.nobleviola.com\/wordpress\/2007\/05\/13\/this-week\/","url_meta":{"origin":5247,"position":5},"title":"this week","author":"Charles Noble","date":"May 13, 2007","format":false,"excerpt":"I've noticed that some other orchestral bloggers give their schedule, and I think it helps give the layperson an idea of what we do during the week, so I'll do the same for this last classical subscription week of the year (with gigs included): PROGRAM: Schubert Symphony No. 8 \"Unfinished\"\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "the orchestra world"","block_context":{"text":"the orchestra world","link":"https:\/\/www.nobleviola.com\/wordpress\/category\/music\/the-orchestra-world\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]}],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nobleviola.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5247","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nobleviola.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nobleviola.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nobleviola.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/303"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nobleviola.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=5247"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.nobleviola.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5247\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nobleviola.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=5247"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nobleviola.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=5247"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nobleviola.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=5247"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}